Screens

Summary

If you play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for a little while, sooner or later you're going to encounter a stunning vista. Valleys, forests and mountains will spread out before you, peppered with massive monuments and hints of a great civilisation.

It's this epic sweep of the landscape that, more than anything else in Breath of the Wild, that sets this game apart from its predecessors in the Legend of Zelda series. Or, more accurately, it's the landscape and how Link relates to it.

There are over a hundred shrines scattered across the landscape, promising puzzles and precious resources. But now they can be explored at will, in any order you like. That might meen getting your behind kicked, but that's a risk you might just have to take.

That freedom to approach Hyrule YOUR way is reflected in other ways, too. Link can scramble up all sorts of things in the environment, from trees to mountains to temples. He can paraglide or slide down slopes on his shield to cover ground more quickly. He can even jump!

Gathering resources has become a richer experience now, too. You won't be cutting down grass to find food, for example - you'll be plucking fruit from trees or hunting deer. There's even a crafting system to take things even further.

While the environment offers new riches, however, there are also new threats. Enemies are no longer randomly scattered throughout the world - they've often banded together and you'll need to strategise to tackle them. You also need to think about the kit you have when you explore - if you go up a mountain unprepared you might freeze to death, go out in a storm and your weapons might attract lightning!

In fact, Breath of the Wild might just be the most ambitious Zelda game yet.